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My
name is Maria and I am in Willie's team. He
suggested I send you a slight variation on an
Everest update.
Climbing
Everest: The fine line between tough and
wimpy.
We
are 6 people on a commercial expedition to
Everest and we made it into base camp without
any problems. Two weeks ago I started my
acclimatization program and climbed up and
down the Khumbu, ladders and all, just fine. I
was totally excited, because I expected me to
crawl, instead I walked. Unfortunately, I
started coughing and it went downhill from
there. I nursed my cold for 7 days, while
talking 4 types of antibiotics, diamox and
codeine. After a few days, I decided that none
of that stuff worked and I discontinued it.
After 7 days my guide, Willie, told me that we
should get going with the acclimatization. I
really did not feel like it, but also did not
want to be the supreme stick in the mud and so
I said "yes". The next morning we
got going and my coughing was bad. I thought
of all the articles I read on people breaking
there ribs due to severe coughs. Now, why
would I want my coughing to break my ribs?
Walking with intact ribs is unpleasant enough.
At some point I tell my guide: " Willie I
do not want to go to camp 1. My breathing is
too labored, my coughing too frequent and the
spells too prolonged. I need to get healthy
first."
Willie's
response took me by surprise. He said:
"You do not want to take the pain!"
I never really thought about it that way. I
always did everything I did, because I was
healthy and there was no pain. Maybe an
inflamed tendon or a bloody toe nail, but
nothing major. Having a breathing and coughing
problem was a pain I had never ever considered
accepting. So I answered in all truthfulness:
"You are right, I do not want to endure
this pain."
We
turned back and I packed my bags to go to the
clinic in Pheriche and see, whether I could
get fixed. The doctor there decided I had
inflamed lungs and put me on corticosteroids.
I settled in at the Panorama Lodge just next
to the clinic, sat in the sun room and found
myself with a lot of time to ponder, whether
getting out of the acclimatization program was
the right thing to do. Did I make the right
decision or did I wimp out?
I
am back in base camp and am planning to
restart acclimatization tomorrow. Let's see
how it goes. Maria
Part
2: April 25, 2002: Since
there is a lot of down time in an Everest
Expedition you can have more. Maybe I am just
simply being controversial: I sit in my tent
or walk through base camp and camp II and hear
people cough out their lungs, but if I ask
them, how they are doing, the answer is
"Great!, Nobody is sick in our
group!" Well, I am very happy for them.
Maria
Climbing
Everest. The fine line between tough and wimpy
- Continued
Due
to my descent to Pheriche I am behind in my
acclimatization schedule. On April 22 Willie
and I discuss an accellerated program and
decide to play it by ear as to slowing it
down, if necessary. On April 23 early in the
morning I start out with one of our sherpas,
Chumbi, and we head for camp I. We make it
through the ice fall without any problems and
settle into camp I. We are supposed to stay
there for two nights, but it takes us about 5
seconds to decide that we will move on as soon
as possible. Camp I looks like a ghost tent
settlement buried under a foot of snow. Of
course it is Chum's job to acclimatize me and
not to
look for more comfortable quarters. He sakes
me every 5 minutes, whether indeed I have no
headache. Since I really do not have a
headache and since I do not like camp I
either, we take of the next day and head for
camp II, where we are both a lot happier.
I
joined my team members at camp II, but since I
was off schedule, they left the next day,
whereas I had a rest day and was supposed to
then attempt the Lhotse face the day after.
However, that second night the winds picked up
and blew off the tents that had been set up at
camp III and broke most of the larger tents,
like the cooking tent and mess tents, in camp
II. That morning we started towards the Lhotse
face, but the winds were so fierce that all
the sherpas abandoned their attempts to reach
camp III and turned around. As all the sherpas
were coming down the mountain, Willie, our
leader, decided that I had had enough exposure
to higher altitude and that we better leave
before the winds were going to blow us off the
mountain. We left camp II and descended the
ice fall in a snow storm - it was beautiful
and scary to be in the Khumbu in a snow storm.
Fortunately, we made it down safely and had a
great meal back in base camp. In a few days
all the tents will have been fixed or replaced
and I will join the rest of the group and go
up to camp III.
The
enormity of climbing this mountain is slowly
sinking in. It is not just a matter of
endurance and mountaineering skills: it is a
fight with nature on two fronts. The first
front is the capabilities of the human body:
it isn't made to live, let alone thrive up
here. The second front is nature: the winds
and temperatures are forbidding. Maybe I
chewed up more than I can swallow. Time will
tell.
Love
Maria
 Dispatches
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